Sunday, January 4, 2015

December 8, 2015 - Another late update

December 8, 2014

Hola hola!

This week was really good and especially this weekend
because the president and his wife came to Cobija! It’s kind of a big deal
because we are so far away and he doesn’t come out very often, so it was really
good. They got here on Friday and we had our zone conference, and then he
took us all out to our early Christmas dinner. Saturday morning we had an
activity with Hermana Zambrano and las hermanas of the Relief Society
presidency. We went out and visited the
hermanas less actives. In the afternoon we visited people and picked
mangos off a tree and ate them with an hermana who is an older lady and so sweet!
Then we went around and invited people to the district conference that we were
going to have Saturday and Sunday (it’s like stake conference but here it’s a
district because it’s so small). Then we went there in the evening and listened
to a really good discurso by the presidente and he talked about how
discouragement doesn’t come from God and it will diminish our faith. We talked
about how we can strengthen our faith and get rid of discouragement and how we
can live the gospel and be happy. He said something I really liked – “Ser feliz
es una consecuencia de vivir el evangelio”, which means that being happy is the
consequence of living the gospel.

On Sunday it was really good even though for the first half
of the conference there wasn’t power so there wasn’t light and there wasn’t a
microphone and there wasn’t air conditioning and there were MUCHAS personas in
a small chapel, so everyone was dying. But then the power came on and there was
aire!! The presidente talked about reverence and how reverence leads to
receiving revelation. Later in the afternoon we had our interviews with
presidente and he talked to all of us (there are 14 missionaries here in our
zone de Cobija). He told us how really he trusts us, because we’re so far
from Santa Cruz, that we’re all here for a reason, and that we have a responsibility
to help build up the church in this pueblo. I really do feel so lucky
because it’s the jungle and it’s beautiful. But don’t get me wrong, it is
hard too, because it’s basically the hottest place in all Bolivia and we’re
away from all the other missionaries. But also it’s great because I love our
zone and we’re like a small little family here and I love it. Presidente
y Hermana Zambrano are on their way back to Santa Cruz and we’ve all been nourished
and strengthened and ready to work and to share the gospel with these people
and help them come unto Christ, especially in this season of Christmas. If you haven’t
seen this video yet, go and watch it: http://www.mormon.org/christmas
He is the Gift :)